PokerStars and Red Bull Racing are celebrating one year of their global partnership, and they did it in style over the weekend with a 2022 Wrap Party at the home of Oracle Red Bull Racing in Milton Keynes.
The partnership was announced in January with the intention to “enable both Red Bull Racing and PokerStars to reach audiences who share similar passions and interests… ”as well as providing existing fans with “epic experiences, promotions, competitions, and content."
Both brands have gone from strength-to-strength in 2022 as Red Bull racing won their first Constructors’ Championship since 2013 while PokerStars have got their European Poker Tour back up and running following the interruption of the pandemic.
Formula One has only got more popular in recent years following Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” docuseries, while poker has experienced a post pandemic boom with the PokerStars EPT Barcelona Main Event breaking the record for the biggest main event back in August with 2,294 entries.
The Wrap Party started with a panel, hosted by PokerStars commentator James Hartigan, between PokerStars Director of Partnerships, PR & Consumer Engagement Rebecca McAdam Willetts, and Principal of Red Bull Racing Christian Horner.
The panel started with Horner speaking on the partnership between the entertainment titans.
“Poker and Formula 1 are similar with them both being high risk high reward," Horner said.
McAdam Willets went on to say, “2022 was just a warmup. 2023 will be bigger and better”.
PokerStars will be ending its 2022 season with EPT Prague from December 7-18 followed by the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and PokerStars No Limit Hold’em Players Championship in the Bahamas from January 22- February 3, 2023.
PokerStars recently announced its 2023 EPT schedule, which starts with a brand new stop in Paris from February 15-26 as well as another new stop in Cyprus from October 11-22.
Red Bull Racing were celebrating having ended eight years of Mercedes dominance by winning 17 out of 22 races in the 2022 season, with Max Verstappen having won his second successive Drivers Championship.
Horner, when asked about potential rivals next season, joked “Well, Ferrari have just fired half their team.” Horner said he expect Mercedes to come back as a strong challenger. He also spoke on the return of Daniel Ricciardo to the team as third choice driver, saying that it was good to have the best smile in Formula One back on the team.
After the panel, guests were invited to take part in a charity poker tournament in support of Wings for Life.
Wings for Life is a spinal cord research foundation committed to finding a cure for spinal cord injury. In support of the charity, which was set-up in 2003 by Red Bull founder Dietrich Matechitz, PokerStars committed a £10,000 donation for the occasion. Members of PokerStars Team Pro, including Lex Veldhuis and Parker Talbot, were in attendance for the event with bounties on their heads. The members of TeamPro gave a tutorial to the guests in attendance before the tournament began.
Both PokerStars and Red Bull Racing will no doubt be hoping for as successful a 2023 as 2022 has proven to be.
